- Starknet and Arbitrum led the pack in user fees, surpassed only by zkSync Era.
- The price of both tokens fell despite positive protocol performance.
After the Dencun upgrade, competition in the Layer 2 sector has increased significantly in recent days. Two networks in particular have been in the spotlight, namely Starknet [STRK] and Arbitrum [ARB].
Low gas costs
Starknet and Arbitrum outperformed all other networks in terms of cost per user, coming in second behind only zkSync Era.
Source: Artemis
Despite costs being comparable on both networks, there was a huge discrepancy between activity on both protocols.
Notably, Arbitrum managed to attract a large number of addresses on the network and witnessed a significant increase in activity, crossing the 1 million mark in terms of daily active addresses.
Daily transactions taking place on the Arbitrum network also grew and crossed the 3 million mark. Starknet saw similar growth on both fronts, but the numbers didn’t come close to Arbiturm.
For Starknet to compete sufficiently in the L2 space, it would need to attract more users to the network.
Source: Artemis
The same discrepancy was seen in the performance of both protocols in the DeFi sector.
The TVL (Total Value Locked) remained stable for both networks. But DEX volumes on both protocols fluctuated significantly.
Source: Artemis
STRK vs. ARB: price movements
As for the price movement, at the time of writing, ARB was trading at $0.8017, having grown 1.1% in the last 24 hours. Since May 27, the price had dropped significantly, with multiple lower lows and lower highs.
Even though there was a recent spike in ARB’s price, there would likely be no reversal in the ongoing bearish trend.
ARB’s RSI (Relative Strength Index) remained at 42.27 at the time of writing, indicating that bullish momentum had waned. However, the CMF (Chaikin Money Flow) remained high, indicating that some money was still flowing into the network.
Source: trading view
Realistic or not, here is ARB’s market cap in BTC terms
STRK also saw a similar price move after moving sideways throughout the month of May as the token dropped significantly in recent days. No significant increase in price was observed.
Both the RSI, at 35, and the CMF, at -0.10, painted a bearish picture for the token’s future. At the time of writing, STRK was trading at $0.708.
Source; Trading view